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The village of Southerness lies on the Scottish shore of the Solway Firth about fifteen miles south west of Dumfries. It was planned by Richard Oswald of Cavens in the eighteenth century.
Coal was sometimes found on the beach and Oswald had plans for mining. He had cottages for miners built near Southerness Point. And these cottages are still standing –– as the above photograph shows.
But these cottages were never used by miners. Trial shafts were sunk but the surveyor’s report was unfavourable. So the cottages ended up being used by people who came for sea bathing. The hey day of sea bathing was later than this – in the nineteenth century – but it was popular in Southerness earlier than this as the Statistical Account of Scotland (the 1790s one) says
A trial for coal was made in its neighbourhood but without success. It is now chiefly inhabited by persons who keep furnished rooms, to accomodate such as, during the season, come to it for sea bathing.
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